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The Press, Policy and Public Affairs team at R3 has won the In-House Team of the Year award at the inaugural Public Affairs Awards. The event, which took place on Tuesday 3 December, celebrated excellence in public affairs across a wide range of sectors.

The team, consisting of Victoria Jonson, Georgina Dowling, Alex Green-Wilkes, Nick Cosgrove and Orla Hennessy, was also shortlisted in the Trade Body Campaign of the Year for it’s ongoing work on personal insolvency reform.

Victoria Jonson, Director of Communications & Public Affairs at R3, said: ‘We’re delighted that R3’s work has been recognised by the wider public affairs profession. Insolvency has been under significant public and political scrutiny in 2014, with plenty of new legislation and government policy to respond to. It’s been a very busy year. This award recognises a real team effort: not just by the team at R3, but by R3 members.

“The team wouldn’t be able to do the work with politicians, press and stakeholders that it does without input and support from R3’s members – whether it’s attending meetings, taking part in an R3 committee or responding to a member survey. Hopefully 2015 will be just as productive.”

The below was R3’s submission in the In-House Team of the Year category:

New ways of working in R3's public affairs team: our most successful year yet

R3 is the trade body for the UK’s insolvency profession. Representing more than 3,000 members, the role of the public affairs, policy and press team (PPP) is to make the complicated, negatively perceived, and supposedly ‘dull’, topic of insolvency relevant and of interest to the public, politicians and journalists.

Two out of four members of the team (the two public affairs staff) were new to R3 as of October 2013 and January 2014. This presented a ‘knowledge gap’ challenge, but was also an opportunity for new ways of working. This new team has since delivered high-quality outcomes on issues that matter to R3 members at a time when the profession is under significant scrutiny from government and the subject of negative public perceptions. This team’s diverse background, experience, technical knowledge and creativity has led to the most successful year yet for R3’s public affairs, policy and press work.

Our strategy

  • Fully integrated press, policy and public affairs work: a key part of our success. The team has clear responsibilities but also gets the chance to do bits of PA/press/policy work to further their career development. Junior members of the team also get to develop and manage their own projects.
  • To be ‘bigger picture’, positive, and relevant: Our 2014 work has been wrapped under three new publically and politically friendly narratives by calling for reforms to the UK’s insolvency regime that will: provide a better deal for small businesses; a better deal for the taxpayer; and personal insolvency solutions fit for 21st century personal debt.

Key outputs and successes

Over the last 12 months, the team has achieved 2,000 policy-related press mentions, worked on more than 20 different issues, secured three policy wins, published more than ten reports, introduced ten new initiatives, launched three new campaigns and met with more than 40 parliamentarians at one-to-one meetings (and found time for regular social outings to some favourite Farringdon pubs!). Successes include:

Policy wins:

  • Inclusion in the Small Business Bill of R3 recommendations around efficient reporting of director misconduct – a key goal for the Business Secretary.
  • Two Government consultations published as a result of R3 campaigns on:
    • The need for personal insolvency reform to address the personal debt crisis in the UK.
    • Concerns that reforms to licensing of Insolvency Practitioners will harm small businesses and individuals who are seeking debt advice.
  • Three new campaigns launched: sustainable football finance (to achieve a better deal for small businesses who supply insolvent football clubs); personal insolvency reform (to achieve personal insolvency solutions fit for 21st century personal debt); diversity in the insolvency profession (to support women in the profession/promoting the profession as a career of choice).
  • New initiatives launched include: A step-by-step guide to insolvency for small businesses (a website endorsed by creditor groups to be launched in October); Sector Survival Index (a quarterly tracker of which sectors are at risk of insolvency across the UK). 

R3 Public Affairs, Policy and Press team: Victoria Jonson (Director Communications & Public Affairs), Georgina Dowling (Public Affairs & Policy Manager), Nick Cosgrove (Communications Manager) Alex Green-Wilkes (Public Affairs & Policy Officer).